Friday
Mostly sunny, with a high near 61. Windy, with a southwest wind 10-20 mph, increasing to 20-30 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 40 mph. A 10 percent chance of showers at night. Partly cloudy, with a low around 39. Breezy, with a southwest wind 20-25 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph.

Saturday
Mostly sunny, with a high near 60. Windy, with a west wind 30 to 35 mph, with gusts as high as 45 mph. Partly cloudy at night, with a low around 33. Windy.

A water line break left many on the West side without water Thursday morning, prompting the closing of several schools and the San Miguel County offices in the old courthouse building. Schools affected were Don Cecilio, Tony Serna and Union elementary schools. The line was expected to be repaired by 2 p.m. Thursday.

THUMBS UP! VETERANS CENTER A GOOD IDEA
We applaud Luna Community College for opening a Veterans Resource Center. The center will help veterans and their family members cut through the red tape required for such things as obtaining educational benefits. Veterans will also get academic and career advisement, along with peer to peer mentoring at the center. Many service members have been returning from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and some will need help transitioning back to civilian life. We’re glad to see Luna being a leader in this effort.

When the first officials of the consolidated city gathered in 1970 for their inaugural meeting following the March 3 election, the new City Council was evenly divided. Four had been elected from the “all Chicano” slate, and four from the slate headed by new Mayor Fidel “Chief” Gonzales — resulting in an acrimonious and inauspicious beginning.

Editor’s note: This is part one of two. The second installment will run in Monday’s edition.

How important is public education and how does it affect our lives? Those two questions can be easily answered by going to the local market and interacting with a store clerk, calling a service provider with a problem on a bill, or getting information over the telephone about a service.

SANTA FE — Fewer than 200 New Mexicans signed up for health insurance plans through a troubled federal online marketplace during its first month of operation, the Obama administration reported Wednesday.

The announcement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed the disappointing enrollment that New Mexico officials had expected because of computer glitches that hampered the start of the federal health insurance exchange.